The number of people  in Southampton receiving personal independence payments has nearly doubled in six years.

Data shows some 15,696 people were receiving the payment - designed to cover extra costs for long-term sufferers of physical disability or mental health conditions - as of April this year. 

This is up from 7,925 in April 2019, the figures collated by the TaxPayers' Alliance shows.

Some 7,079 people are receiving PIP in the Southampton Itchen constituency, with Darren Paffey MP being among the rebels that ultimately brought down the Government's welfare reform bill last week.

The data also shows the reasons why people claim PIP - with the biggest category in the Southampton City Council area being classed as 'psychiatric disorders'.

Some 6,763 people in this category include 1,180 with autism, and 1,650 with mixed anxiety and depressive disorders.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: "It’s no exaggeration to say that this is becoming an emergency for taxpayers, as the number of PIP claimants spirals out of control.

“And yet even minor adjustments that seek not to reverse this rate of increase but instead to simply slow it down seem to be beyond the pale for this profligate posse of Labour MPs.

“Politicians across the spectrum need to now put country over party and radically reform the benefits system to avoid it crippling the nation’s finances while ensuring that more and more people are liberated from a life of benefits and dependency.”

MP Mr Paffey previously said he recognises the need for welfare and welcomed "necessary and long-overdue improvements to employment support to achieve the government’s goal of helping more people who can work into suitable jobs".

But he added: “However, the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Universal Credit will have a profound impact on disabled and vulnerable people in my constituency and will likely outweigh the positive aspects of the proposals.

"We simply don’t have enough data to show this risk of pushing more vulnerable people into poverty will be adequately offset by the positive impact of employment support programmes."

The MP made clear his views in March this year against changing the qualifying criteria for PIP after talking with constituents.

He was among more than 100 Labour MPs who rebelled against Sir Keir Starmer's Government by signing an amendment to the bill, risking his own standing.

There are 5,795 PIP claims in Eastleigh, up from 2,709 in 2019 and 7,940 in the New Forest, up from 4,040.